"Pieces of the Island"-An English Translation

Jaime Dario Blanco

Well-known Eastern Cuban dissident and independent journalist who is vice-Director of the ADO-Press independence news agency, Caridad Caballero Batista, has penned a few reports of repression this week in Cuba. Here is one of her reports about two dissidents who were savagely beaten and then arrested just for trying to travel within their own country:

—-

Two dissidents savagely beaten and arrested as they traveled from municipality of Gibara to the city of Holguin.

At 9 in the morning of Wednesday, October 19th 2011, Leonides Trinidad Rodriguez and Jaime Dario Blanco were both intercepted at the checkpoint of Agua Claro (just a few minutes from the city they were traveling to) by the National Police and the G2. According to Trinidad, an activist from the Eastern Democratic Alliance, the uniformed officials climbed aboard the vehicle Blanco and her were on and, without an excuse to any of those present, commenced the arrest. The officials began to aggressively push the dissidents, and even grabbed their hair and dragged them out of the vehicle. They were then shoved into Operational Guard vehicles and taken to a detention center where they received all sorts of threats, including death threats. They were released at around 6 pm.